What does feminism mean to you?

Thursday, 18 September 2014

"Feminism is not a dirty word. It does not mean you hate men, it does not mean that you hate girls that have nice legs and a tan, and it does not mean you are a 'bitch' or 'dyke' ; it means you believe in equality"- Kate Nash

Growing up I always had this inclination that I didn't like the way the woman around me where being treated as inferior and I wanted to stand up for them.

As I grew older, I wanted to be a single mum and raise 6 children on my own because I believed they where heroes.

(Note I didn't grow up with a single mother on the contrary,my mother passed away when I was 10 and my dad has been taking care of me all on his own ). I have always looked up to independent women,women who where making marks for themselves and I said to my self I want to be like them.It wasn't till I was older that I realised that was feminism.I always believed in the equality between a woman and a man, how she doesn't need anything from a man and she can make it on her own.

In this new age and dawn, I have experienced the rise of feminism and how more people

(mostly women, shout to all my male feminist) are standing up for it and its such a beautiful thing seeing women taking a stand.

Last night while I was on twitter, I saw a tweet that made me cringe all over,the tweet goes as thus

"A feminist is a woman that too lazy to be a woman"

At first I was mad like a bull dog but it was only the next day I realized the person wasn't the person fault (he is a guy by the way) but rather the fault of the media or sometimes the feminist community if you will.

There is a stereotypical feminist behaviour which is anti-male and anti- family. I am not here to state the problems we as females face today or why we need feminism in the world (hat's a whole different story), but rather to talk about the problem we have in this feminist community.

"You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." - matt 7:5

This is not not a religious post on feminism but I just like this verse/quote because it highlights a problem we have in this community. How do we expect the world to respect us a equals when we (females) are not united and show each other respect? We are so quick to judge and call out someone because they don't act in a certain stereotype of a feminist.

"We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are"- Chimamanda Ngozi

I have always believed that the main aim of feminism is
about equality between the sexes, the keyword EQUALITY. I don't get why females put down other women because she acts in a
certain way.

Look at this screen shot I took from Tumblr, where Fox FEMALE
reporters slut shame Beyoncé because of her VMA performance, saying she was
skanky and all that.

I remember the day of
her performance, I saw a tweet from a viewer can’t exactly what she said but it
went in the line of this. "Beyoncé calling herself a feminist, I'm gone
*logs off*"

Why do we make it seem that only guys can be sexual, so if a
female wants to be sexual and be called a feminist she can’t because "she
is being a slut or skanky". So what if she is sexual, as long as she is
doing for herself to feel good and not because a man says so. It is called
being comfortable in your skin. Beyoncé has said it times without number she
feels empowered with her sexuality.

Let’s go to the other side of the spectrum, just because a
woman want to dress more conservative doesn't make her less of a feminist as
long as she believes equality between both genders.

If a woman decides to dress in long shirts and cover up doesn't mean she is conforming to male patriarchy.

If she feels comfortable and happy in what she wears and still believes in equability, she has as much right to be called a feminist.

What I am trying to say is that no matter who you or how you
act, Whether is being the typical woman (who cooks and cleans or likes pink or
who likes to please their partner) or you at the opposite side of the spectrum who
is anti-family or anti male you are a feminist or (at least have the feminist
ideologies) as long as you believe in the equality between the sexes.

I am going to end with quote a from Chimamanda Ngozi "A feminist is person who believes in the social, political and economic
equality of the sexes " Correct me if I am wrong or if my ideologies are
not correct but is feminism not fighting for equality between the male and
female gender?

Nice article Titi darling😘. I really enjoyed it. The worst thing about females for me is competing and gossiping about each other instead of strengthing our fellow females. Females are not United enough so I as a person I don't really belief in feminism. We need to be United before we can call ourselves feminist.